Privacy policy

Security and Protection

This is the Vero Insurance Limited Privacy Policy on the management of personal information. "We," "our" and "us" refers to Vero Insurance Limited and other members of the group of companies to which we belong. "Personal Information" means information or an opinion, about an individual (a natural living person) whose identity is apparent or can reasonably be ascertained from the information or opinion.

We appreciate that as a customer you trust us with your personal information, and we are committed to safeguarding your privacy.

Please read this policy carefully before using this website. It should be read in conjunction with our Terms of Use.

By using our website you:

(a) consent to personal information you provide for us to register you on our website, being used for that purpose;
(b) consent to the creation and maintenance of a database record about you; and
(c) understand that we may use cookies on your browser;

1. This policy

We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of our customers. We appreciate that as our customer, you trust us with your personal information.

In handling your personal information, we will comply with the National Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act and, where applicable, the policies and codes of industry groups to which we belong.

This policy explains our general practices in handling personal information. If you need further information, have questions about our privacy practices or wish to gain access to your personal information, please contact us.

2. Collecting personal information

(a) Collecting your personal information

We collect personal information for the purposes of: providing services to you, including evaluating your application, evaluating any request for a change to any service provided; providing, administering and managing the services following acceptance of an application; investigating and, if covered, managing claims made in relation to any product you have with us.

The personal information collected may be used or disclosed by us for a secondary purpose related to the above purposes, but only if you would reasonably expect us to use or disclose the information for this secondary purpose. However for sensitive information, the secondary purpose must be directly related to the purposes above.

If we request personal information about you, and you do not provide it, we may not be able to provide the services or goods requested, or pay any claim under a Guarantee.

The details of exactly what types of personal information we collect can be found on the forms we ask you to complete, on our website and in the questions we ask, for example, your e-mail address, name, address, date of birth and gender.

(b) Collecting personal information about someone else

We sometimes collect information about people who are not our customers as part of providing a product, for example, where we process a claim on any Guarantee provided by us.

If you have disclosed personal information about any other person, you confirm that you are authorised to:

  • disclose to us personal information about that person and to consent to its use for the purposes shown in the Privacy Statement, and
  • consent to disclosure to, and obtaining of other personal information about that person from other parties including those shown in the Privacy Statement, for any of the purposes shown in the Privacy Policy.
3. Other offers

We would like to use your personal information to keep you up to date with the range of products and services available from Vero Insurance Limited and other members of the group of companies to which we belong. When Vero Insurance Limited or other members of the group of companies to which we belong contacts you, you will be given the opportunity to not receive these communications from the company. This choice can be changed at any time.

4. Our use of cookies

Cookies are pieces of information that a website transfers to your computer's hard disk for record keeping purposes. Most web browsers are set to accept cookies. We use cookies to make your use of our website and services as convenient as possible. Cookies do not personally identify you, although they do identify your browser. Cookies are useful to estimate the number of customers and determine overall traffic patterns through our website. If you do not wish to receive any cookies you may set your browser to refuse cookies. This may mean you will not be able to take full advantage of our services.

5. Disclosing your personal information

We may disclose your personal information to and receive personal information from, when necessary and in connection with the purposes in "Collecting your personal information" above, to other members of the group of companies to which we belong, your broker or our agent, government bodies, loss assessors, claim investigators, reinsurers, other insurance companies, mailing houses, claims reference providers, other service providers, hospitals, medical and health professionals, legal and other professional advisers.

If you do not provide us with the information we need we will be unable to consider your application for a Guarantee, or manage any claim under your Guarantee.

6. Access to your personal information

You can request access to your personal information by contacting us. If accessing your personal information will take an extended period of time, we will inform you of any likely delay.

The National Privacy Principles outline circumstances under which we may not agree to allow you access to some or all of your personal information. In such cases, we will give you a reason for our decision. We may charge for the cost of providing access to your personal information. We will inform you if such a charge applies before we proceed with your request.

7. Accuracy of your personal information

We will take reasonable steps to ensure that any personal information we hold about you is accurate, complete and up-to-date.

8. Security

We will take reasonable steps to protect any personal information we hold about you from misuse, loss or unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We have information security policies in place for both computer records and for our paper files, which aim to minimise the risk of unauthorised access to your personal information.

Your information is stored on secure servers that are protected in controlled facilities. We require our employees and data processors to respect the confidentiality of any personal information held by us. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be completely secure, so we cannot give an absolute assurance that the information you provide to us via the Internet will be secure at all times. We will not be held responsible for events arising from unauthorised access to your personal information.

Please contact us if you want further information about our security practices. Please notify us immediately if you become aware of any unauthorised use of this website by an Internet user or any other breach of security.

9. Use of e-mail

If you send us e-mail we may preserve the content if we consider it necessary to do so. Any personal information contained in your e-mail, including your e-mail address may be used to assist us to provide our services and products. This may mean disclosing personal information about you to third parties outside Vero Insurance Limited, such as to mailing houses and other members of the group to which we belong. However, we will disclose your personal information only for the purpose of providing our products and services to you.

You must be aware that e-mails are not necessarily secure and if you have concerns about the security of the contents of e-mail then you should consider contacting us by other means.

10. Resolving problems related to your privacy

If you want to report a suspected breach of your privacy or you do not agree with a decision regarding access to your personal information, please contact us. We have an internal dispute resolution process to address such issues.

If you are not satisfied with our final decision you can direct your complaint to the Federal Privacy Commissioner, either on 1300 363 992 or by mail to GPO Box 5218, Sydney, NSW, 1042.

11. Future Changes

Our business will continue to evolve as we introduce new services and features to our website. Because of this, from time to time we may review this privacy policy and may amend it to reflect changes in legislation, industry codes or in the business environment. We encourage you to look at this policy on a regular basis to stay informed of changes in this policy.

Issue Date: 7th November 2003